Dallas Cowboys Blog

Troy Aikman: Cowboys have enough skill players to get offense going

In his weekly talk with The Musers on The Dunham and Miller Show on KTCK-AM 1310 on Thursday, Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman talked about some of the problems the Cowboys are facing on offense. Some excerpts:

Can the Cowboys fix their offensive problems or is this something that will hinder them all season?

Aikman: In our best offensive years, we would hit a stretch, you know, a couple of games, and you wonder whether or not you’re ever going to get a first down. It’s just kind of the nature of offense. … The biggest thing that I see is just the offensive line doing a better job in protection and then, of course, run blocking and being able to get some of those things going on the ground. They’ve got enough skill players that those guys I think are just too talented to not be pretty good when all is said and done.

Can the Cowboys produce a balanced attack with their current struggles running the ball?

Aikman: As you prepare during the week, you talk about, “OK, well, what’s going to give us the best chance to win?” And you’ve got your ideas and thoughts going in, depending on who you’re playing and what their strengths are defensively. And then you get into the game and, as they always say, then a game takes place.

I know, in visiting with Jason Garrett, and he’s not unlike all these other coaches, and you ask them, “Hey, what’s the key to your success offensively?” And everybody wants to be balanced. And that doesn’t necessarily mean running the ball 50% of the time and passing the ball 50% of the time, but you want to mix it in enough to where teams don’t have a complete idea of what you’re doing. But then, if you’re not having success, running the ball, it becomes harder to call those plays. And some coaches are able to stick with it longer and some are not.

Now I’m sure they would love to get the ball to DeMarco Murray and take some of the pressure off Tony Romo, but if they’re not having success doing it, and then when you get behind, it becomes increasingly harder to stay with it.